Yuan Watch : Lock-up Expiration

By Winny Wang | 2008-12-29
ShanghaiDaily.com

Share investors are advised to be cautious in the last three days of trading for this year as concerns persist over possible selling of non-tradable equities in the Shanghai stock market, analysts said.

The lock-up periods of 13.2 billion non-tradable shares, accounting for 2.6 percent of the circulation in the A-share market, expire over the last 10 days of this month.

"A total of 650 million non-tradable shares have been sold so far this month, equivalent to 4.81 billion yuan and a rise of 73.85 percent from a month earlier, which greatly dampened the market's performance," said Zhou Yu, an analyst at Pacific Securities Co.

"Concerns over declining corporate earnings and a resumption of new share sales will be under the spotlight in the early part of next year," said Teng Yin, an analyst of Everbright Securities Co.

Liu Xinhua, assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, last week said the regulator will encourage pension funds, insurers and mutual funds to invest more in the domestic stock markets.